How did the Puritan work ethic inform our social and political institutions? How have these systems served to repress creativity? And most importantly, who can beat Satan at musical chairs?! Inspired by the Federalist Papers, current events, and a certain famous play, the CoHo Clown Cohort playfully examines the conflict between repression and freedom through the lens of clown performance. This fully staged work-in-progress builds upon a CoHo Lab workshop and will continue development for a final production in summer of 2019. The CoHo Clown Cohort was assembled in 2017 with the support of a Creative Heights grant from the Oregon Community Foundation. This experimental ensemble creates laugh-out-loud original works utilizing the extreme physical comedy and minimal dialogue of theatrical clowning. The Cohort’s last project, Philip’s Glass Menagerie, was presented in CoHo Summerfest 2018 after a Fertile Ground performance earlier in the year.